A woman who made the decision to change her life by undergoing surgery in Turkey has revealed how the botched operation left her in so much pain she sometimes wanted to “die” and at one point was hospitalised with psychosis brought on by the realisation of the extent of the disfigurement.
According to a report by Pay TV, Sara Platt, 33, from South Wales, underwent surgery in Turkey in 2021 to reduce the size of her stomach. She lost 60kg but was left with excess skin, which caused sores and an unpleasant smell when rubbed against her stomach.
Her only option to get rid of the skin was further surgery, but as she was unable to have the operation done on the NHS, she says having it done privately would cost around £33,000 in the UK.
Instead, she did her research and found a surgeon in Turkey, who had numerous five-star reviews (which Sara now believes are fake), who would perform the sagging skin removal as well as a breast lift and implants, all for £15,000.
As well as the price of the operation, Sara was lured by the promise that she would be able to recover from extensive work under the Turkish sun; however, this was not the case and she was instead left to rot in a squalid hotel room due to botched surgery, leading to her requiring nine corrective surgeries on the NHS as well as permanent disfigurement which at one point left her hospitalised.
Sara Platt (pictured), from South Wales, has shared her horror story of how she underwent plastic surgery abroad in a bid to help others.
The 33-year-old paid £15,000 to have the loose skin removed, as well as a breast lift and a tummy tuck, but then needed a further 10 operations on the NHS to try to repair the damage.
Speaking about the operation earlier, she said: “My body is mutilated: I have two holes in my stomach, I have no breasts, I have a hump on my back and I suffer constant pain. What happened there ruined my life.”
She added: ‘The surgery in the UK would cost £33,000, which was beyond my means.
“I found a place in Turkey that would cost me £15,000. It wasn’t the cheapest, but the clinic and surgeon had plenty of five-star reviews, although I later found out they were almost certainly fake.”
She flew to Turkey for the operation in February 2023, but as soon as she woke up from the 13-hour procedure she realised something was wrong.
Wearing a compression suit and covered in drains, she said she was in terrible pain and couldn’t breathe because the surgeon had removed so much skin that she “couldn’t expand (her) lungs.”
Speaking to ITV, she said: “I remember coming to and my dad being by my side saying, ‘You’ve got to breathe, Sara, you’ve got to breathe’. There were loads of nurses around me and I was saying, ‘Kill me, tell them to kill me, Dad, you’ve got to tell them to kill me. I can’t do this, you’ve got to tell them’.”
According to the mother of four, the pain was so intense that she had never experienced anything like it before and “wanted to die” because “she couldn’t bear it.”
Sara continued to feel unwell and was still in great pain nine days after surgery, at which point she asked her husband to help her remove the bandages, which they did in the hotel bathroom.
Among the results of the botched surgery, Sara (pictured) was left with a scar on her stomach after requiring a skin graft following the original operation.
What happened next left her horrified: a brown liquid was leaking from her body, making her feel as if she was “falling apart.”
Far from recovering by a pool in the Turkish sun, Sara says she was rotting away in a hotel room.
The surgeon decided to carry out another procedure on the 33-year-old, but this time it was done in what she believes was a cosmetic clinic and only local anaesthetic was used, meaning Sara was awake while the work was being carried out.
She told ITV that the surgeon was given a “burning tool” and could feel the burning sensation in her stomach, an experience that made her feel as if her skin was on fire and which she says will haunt her forever and ruin her life.
Following this procedure, Sara was given a fit-to-fly certificate and returned to South Wales where she attended A&E.
On-call plastic surgeon Professor Iain Whitaker has described Sara’s case as “devastating”.
He reports that she was suffering from a major infection and had a lot of dead tissue.
In addition to the scars, the botched surgery left the mother of four in pain and limited movement.
In fact, the situation was so dire that a delay in care could have created a possibility of mortality, he said.
According to Sara: “I also found out that I had contracted MDRO (multi-drug resistant organisms) from the dirty utensils used.”
He spent more than eight weeks in the hospital, undergoing nine surgeries in an attempt to repair the damage and save his life.
But despite the efforts of NHS doctors, she was left with holes in her stomach and lumps under her skin where fatty tissue has died.
“The trauma is so great that I have endless nightmares and PTSD,” she said. “I would do anything to turn back the clock.”
Sara lost her right breast and was left with significant scarring across her body, including a wound on her stomach caused by a skin graft. The work has also left her with limited mobility.
During ITV’s coverage, the presenter followed Sara as she underwent her tenth corrective operation, which helped close the gap left in her stomach by the skin graft and will hopefully increase her mobility and reduce her pain level.
According to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, treating complications caused by surgery performed abroad costs the NHS an estimated average of £15,000 per patient.
And Professor Whitaker said that, as well as the financial cost, these patients cost the NHS “bed days” that could be used to treat others.
Sara says she will “pay it forward to the NHS for saving my life” and couldn’t “be more grateful” for the care and surgery she received from the service.
In addition to the physical pain caused by the botched work, the realization that she had undergone a near-death experience and would be disfigured for life also severely affected Sara mentally.
At one point, she suffered a period of psychosis, during which she was admitted to an inpatient mental health unit.
Describing the whole process, Sara told ITV that it has “destroyed” her, her family and her entire future, leaving her feeling like “a shell” and not herself anymore.
Sara (pictured) says the experience ruined her life, she is haunted by the aftermath and no longer feels like herself.
She shared her story because she wanted to warn people about the possible consequences of undergoing cosmetic procedures abroad, in the hope of helping people.
According to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), those needing hospital treatment in the UK following cosmetic surgery abroad has soared by 94 per cent in three years (from 57 in 2020 to 111 in 2022, with 124 cases so far this year), with procedures carried out in Turkey accounting for more than three-quarters of those in the past six months alone.
The organization began “connecting the dots,” as BAAPS president Marc Pacifico puts it, two years ago when his colleagues shared stories of patients with complications from procedures abroad. “It became clear that these stories were not isolated cases,” he recalls. He started an online database where those affected could share their experiences.
“One of the key aspects of best practices in plastic surgery is whether you’re doing the right surgery on the right person at the right time,” he says.
“We heard about things like tummy tucks on morbidly obese diabetic patients in wheelchairs who should never be considered for surgery. There were also a lot of absolutely terrible stories about aftercare, or lack thereof.”
